THINGS FALL APART

SUPPLEMENTARY STUDY MATERIAL: CHINUA ACHEBE’S ‘THINGS FALL APART’

Learning Outcomes:

• Describe some elements of European and African literary traditions
• Explain aspects of Nigerian culture and history
• Understand how historical events are represented in fiction
• Identify literary devices and orality in literature
• Understand narrative and audience perspective as culturally-positioned
• Recognize strategies that authors use to invoke and speak to specific audiences

Methodology:

1.      To enable the learner to grasp the structure of the plot.

2.      To provide with terminologies for the learner to undertake an independent analysis of the novel in the context of postcoloniality and pluralistic society.

3.      To expose the student, in particular to that of authorial intention and the politics of language in the shaping of this novel.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE TITLE OF THE NOVEL AS WELL AS ITS PROTAGONIST:

The novel takes its title and as well an epigraph to the novel, from a verse in the poem "The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats, an Irish poet, essayist, and dramatist: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

(i)In this poem — ironically, a product of European thought — Yeats describes an apocalyptic vision in which the world collapses into anarchy because of an internal flaw in humanity. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe illustrates this vision by showing us what happened in the Igbo society of Nigeria at the time of its colonization by the British. Because of internal weaknesses within the native structure and the divided nature of Igbo society, the community of Umuofia in this novel is unable to withstand the tidal wave of foreign religion, commerce, technology, and government. In invoking these lines, Achebe hints at the chaos that arises when a system collapses. That “the center cannot hold” is an ironic reference to both the imminent collapse of the African tribal system, threatened by the rise of imperialist bureaucracies.                                           (ii) In "The Second Coming," Yeats evokes the anti-Christ leading an anarchic world to destruction. This ominous tone gradually emerges in Things Fall Apart as an intrusive religious presence and an insensitive government together causes the traditional Umuofian world to fall apart.  Achebe’s allusion is not simply political, nor is ironic on only one level. Yeats’s poem is about the Second Coming, a return and revelation of sorts. In Things Fall Apart, this revelation refers to the advent of the Christian missionaries (and the alleged revelation of their teachings), further satirizing their supposed benevolence in converting the Igbo.                                                         (iii) The hyperbolic and even contradictory nature of the passage’s language suggests the inability of humankind to thwart this collapse. The abstraction in the language makes the poem’s ideas universal: by referring to “[t]hings” falling apart as opposed to specifying what those collapsing or disintegrating things are, Yeats (and Achebe) leaves his words open to a greater range of interpretations. It is worth noting, in addition, that Achebe cuts away from the poem just as it picks up its momentum and begins to speak of “innocence drowned” and “blood-dimmed” tides. It is a measure of Achebe’s subtlety that he prefers a prologue that is understated and suggestive, rather than polemical, ranting, and violent.

  A. The title ‘Things Fall Apart’ refers to the Yeatsian prophecy of the decline and fall of the current incarnation of the West. In using it to speak of the collapse of the Igbo world, Achebe plays with cultural equivalence. One mode of knowledge is forced to give way ‘before’(not ‘to’)another, but not because the other has a stronger claim to be able to know the world. Both are time-bound, culture-bound; either may fall apart. At one moment of history, the Igbo world view gave away before the Western world view. The triumph of one world view does not imply its greater fitness in an evolutionary sense; given different circumstances, the encounter could have had other results.

One could read the first two-thirds of the novel as a synchronic presentation of a whole society. References to past and present events are commingled because there has been no change and thus there is no significance to time passing. The novel takes on a diachronic presentation only when the missionaries appear, bringing change.

When Mr.Brown, the missionary, and Akunna, one of the great men of the village of Umuofia, discuss God, they misunderstand each other. But more remarkable is how they can discuss and learn from each other at all, as clearly they do: their mutual tolerance and their open-mindedness are applauded by the author and contrasted with the fanaticism of Mr. Smith and of Okonkwo. The report of the discussion between Mr. Brown and Akunna sounds like the published proceedings of a modern conference on interfaith dialogue, full of a confidence that beneath the differences of language and ritual there is a common quest for God and a common view of human nature. There can only be discussion where there is an agreement more fundamental than the subjects of dissension. Argument is only possible where there are common terms. Mr. Brown does not speak of Christ; Akunna does not speak of Ani, the goddess of the land. Instead they speak in much more general terms of God and sound like nothing so much as eighteenth-century deists.   In the novel, the narrative moves freely and alternately into the minds of both Igbos and English people. Their thoughts, their desires, and their strategies are remarkably similar. The ease with which the narrative moves between the two communities is matched by the ease with which characters travel from one world to another. They misunderstand each other to be sure, but Europe and Africa are contiguous in time and space. Rather than a conflict between two worlds, we have a conflict between individuals who are very similar but who cannot see into each other’s hearts.   Further, to emphasize the exclusivity of the two worlds, Achebe often leaves Igbo words untranslated.

In ‘Things Fall Apart’, the District Commissioner’s false narrative assumes the Otherness of the Africans. Humanity is not one. What the district commissioner finds of interest in Okonkwo’s suicide is its mystery: its impenetrability is an example of the foreignness, the difference of supposed primitives. By fitting Okonkwo into a comprehensible narrative, the commissioner establishes both Okonkwo’s essential otherness and his own heroic character –his narrative says in effect, “I have travelled through Africa and seen such things for myself” – thus eliminating threat of that difference. To underline the falsity of this version of events, Achebe must reestablish the humanity of his Africans, must insist that Africans live in the same world and are absolutely not the Other. The effect of Achebe’s plain style, stripped of symbolism is to stress the everyday ordinariness of Igbo life, making this world comprehensible.

  B. Achebe thinks that the pluralistic ways of thinking has been essential to Igbo culture. The elastic approach of Igbo people to European civilization was a modern manifestation of pluralism inherited in their communal practices. The adoption of Christianity reflects their cultural resiliency, which has its roots deep in the pluralistic approach may seem to be a deviation from their tradition, Igbo people apply their pluralistic tradition to the new situation after the advent of Christianity, and revitalize their society by adopting new elements from outside. What Achebe had to do is to show that the adoption of outside elements is not a blind submission to the European civilization, but an attempt to keep up with the colonial situation by utilizing the collective wisdom of several generations.

  C. The title of the novel establishes that Okonkwo’s whole life will be seen from the perspective of his end. Tragic defeat and disintegration characterize the central character. Okonkwo was, initially, a product of the community, but his dream, after first adapting itself to the requirements of that community, took new directions. Okonkwo succeeded in the eyes of the villagers, and his success led to excess. He became tyrannical and selfish, narrowing his own ideal world to suit his ends and expecting all others to meet those standards. His dream seduced him away from Umuofian tradition, and when he died he was so far removed from the mainstream of Umuofian life that he could be said to represent little more than himself.

The death of Okonkwo, then, does not mean the metaphorical destruction of the community by alien influences, as aggressive and vicious as those influences were to become. In his complexity, Okonkwo defies such simple symbolic analysis. His is an intensely personal fate; it does not mirror the larger conflict. Never once does he see life whole. His aloneness is self-imposed, his final alienation the result not of Umuofian belligerence in the face of change, but rather the final act of his own desperately conceived fiction. He is a giant of individuality, drawn a shade bigger than life, driven by fear, buoyed by a dream, and shattered by his chi, the flagellating flaw in his character that would allow him neither respite nor perspective. Okonkwo is an eternal dreamer, and reality deforms his visionary grace; he is a single-minded opportunist struggling not merely for survival but for paramountcy. Disfigured by greed, striking out at anything that threatens him, scornfully assaulting those who refuse to accept his world, alone and tormented by fears of inadequacy, Okonkwo writhes in a hell created not by an alien culture; it is the hell of his chi that cripples him, that destroys his sight, twists his soul and feeds him with a perverted dream of greatness. Okonkwo, constantly and fiercely demonstrating his manhood, never wholly understands the value of a man, sacrificing his own dignity and threatening that of others in the name of sheer strength. It is the only manhood he comprehends, and he worships the empty dream; in the process of achieving it, he purges himself of love and is finally a shell of a man, driven to his pathetic act of self-annihilation. The Okonkwo seen hanging from the tree is an empty man, tortured and twisted by his own chi, motivated by his own agonizing conception of the universe and his place in it, misled by the angst of his manly ideal. He is a product not of the society but of his own inadequacies and fears, and he progressively diminishes or destroys those aspects of his character that would humanize him, until he finally destroys all that is left – the external shell.

POSTCOLONIAL READING OF THE NOVEL:

A. Negritude Movement – Portrayal of pre-colonial Africa: The novel contains a literary re-evaluation of the historical past of Chinua Achebe’s people and their ways of life. In the 1950’s, an exciting new literary movement grew in strength. Drawing on indigenous Nigerian oral traditions, this movement enriched European literary forms in hopes of creating a new literature, in English but unmistakably Africa. Published in 1958, ‘Things Fall Apart’ is one of the masterpieces of twentieth century. The novel is set in the 1890’s, during the coming of the white man to Nigeria. In part, the novel is a response and antidote to a large tradition of European literature in which Africans are depicted as primitive and mindless savages. The attitudes present in colonial literature are so ingrained into our perception of Africa that the District Commissioner, who appears at the end of the novel, strikes a chord of familiarity with most readers. He is arrogant, dismissive of African ‘savages’, and totally ignorant of the complexity and richness of Igbo life. Yet his attitude echoes so much of the depiction of Africa; this attitude, following Achebe’s depiction of the Igbo, seems hollow and savage.

The novel attempts to repair some of the damage done by earlier European depictions of Africans. But this recuperation must necessarily come in the form of memory; by the time Achebe was born, the coming of the white man had already destroyed many aspects of indigenous culture. The colonial novels written by white people about the Africans locates them in ‘the other world’, the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization. Thus, Achebe began to grope for other representations as alternatives to the negative reflection, the shadow of the British self-image. The strategy Achebe adopted to remove these stereotypes of Africa and her people, however, was not the replacement of it with another fixed image more congenial to Africans. Achebe’s nostalgia must be distinguished from the romantic ethnology of Negritude movement. Achebe attaches greater importance to the realistic context in his stories, even though set in the past, should be placed in. He scarcely makes such an abundant use of imageries glorifying Africa as is seen in most negritude poems. Instead, Achebe stereotypes the white colonialists as rigid, most with imperialistic intentions, whereas the Igbos are highly individual, many of them open to new ideas.

But readers should note that Achebe is not presenting Igbo culture as faultless and idyllic. Indeed, Achebe would contest such a romantic portrayal of his native people. In fact, many Western writers who wrote about colonialism (including Joseph Conrad, George Orwell, Herman Melville, and Graham Greene) were opposed to imperialism but were romantic in their portrayal of noble savages — primitive and animalistic, yet uncorrupted and innocent. The opposition to imperialism that such authors voiced often rested on the notion that an advanced Western society corrupts and destroys the non-Western world. Achebe regards this notion as an unacceptable argument as well as a myth. The Igbo was not noble savages, and although the Igbo world was eventually destroyed, the indigenous culture was never an idyllic haven, even before the arrival of the white colonialists. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe depicts negative as well as positive elements of Igbo culture, and he is sometimes as critical of his own people as he is of the colonizers.

Achebe has been a major force in the worldwide literary movement to define and describe this African experience. Other postcolonial writers in this movement include Leopold Senghor, Wole Soyinka, Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Birago Diop. These writers not only confront a multiethnic perspective of history and truth, but they also challenge readers to reexamine themselves in this complex and evolving world. As anAfrican novel written in English and departing significantly from more familiar colonial writing, Things Fall Apart was a ground breaking work. Achebe's role in making modern African literature a part of world literature cannot be understated.

From Achebe's own statements, we know that one of his themes is the complexity of Igbo society before the arrival of the Europeans. To support this theme, he includes detailed descriptions of the justice codes and the trial process, the social and family rituals, the marriage customs, food production and preparation processes, the process of shared leadership for the community, religious beliefs and practices, and the opportunities for virtually every man to climb the clan's ladder of success through his own efforts. The book may have been written more simply as a study of Okonkwo's deterioration in character in an increasingly unsympathetic and incompatible environment, but consider what would have been lost had Achebe not emphasized the theme of the complex and dynamic qualities of the Igbo in Umuofia.

Against Achebe's theme of Igbo cultural complexity is his theme of the clash of cultures. This collision of cultures occurs at the individual and societal levels, and the cultural misunderstanding cuts both ways: Just as the uncompromising Reverend Smith views Africans as "heathens," the Igbo initially criticize the Christians and the missionaries as "foolish." For Achebe, the Africans' misperceptions of themselves and of Europeans need realignment as much as do the misperceptions of Africans by the West. Writing as an African who had been "Europeanized," Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as "an act of atonement with [his] past, the ritual return and homage of a prodigal son." By his own act, he encourages other Africans, especially ones with Western educations, to realize that they may misperceive their native culture.

Related to the theme of cultural clash is the issue of how much the flexibility or the rigidity of the characters (and by implication, of the British and Igbo) contribute to their destiny. Because of Okonkwo's inflexible nature, he seems destined for self-destruction, even before the arrival of the European colonizers. The arrival of a new culture only hastens Okonkwo's tragic fate. Two other characters contrast with Okonkwo in this regard: Mr. Brown, the first missionary, and Obierika, Okonkwo's good friend. Whereas Okonkwo is an unyielding man of action, the other two are more open and adaptable men of thought. Mr. Brown wins converts by first respecting the traditions and beliefs of the Igbo and subsequently allowing some accommodation in the conversion process. Like Brown, Obierika is also a reasonable and thinking person. He does not advocate the use of force to counter the colonizers and the opposition. Rather, he has an open mind about changing values and foreign culture: "Who knows what may happen tomorrow?" he comments about the arrival of foreigners. Obierika's receptive and adaptable nature may be more representative of the spirit of Umuofia than Okonkwo's unquestioning rigidity.

For example, consider Umuofia's initial lack of resistance to the establishment of a new religion in its midst. With all its deep roots in tribal heritage, the community hardly takes a stand against the intruders — against new laws as well as new religion. What accounts for this lack of community opposition? Was Igbo society more receptive and adaptable than it appeared to be? The lack of strong initial resistance may also come from the fact that the Igbo society does not foster strong central leadership. This quality encourages individual initiative toward recognition and achievement but also limits timely decision-making and the authority-backed actions needed on short notice to maintain its integrity and welfare. Whatever the reason — perhaps a combination of these reasons — the British culture and its code of behavior, ambitious for its goals of native "enlightenment" as well as of British self-enrichment, begin to encroach upon the existing Igbo culture and its corresponding code of behavior.

A factor that hastens the decline of the traditional Igbo society is their custom of marginalizing some of their people — allowing the existence of an outcast group and keeping women subservient in their household and community involvement, treating them as property, and accepting physical abuse of them somewhat lightly. When representatives of a foreign culture (beginning with Christian missionaries) enter Igbo territory and accept these marginalized people — including the twins — at their full human value, the Igbo's traditional shared leadership finds itself unable to control its whole population. The lack of a clear, sustaining center of authority in Igbo society may be the quality that decided Achebe to draw his title from the Yeats poem, "The Second Coming." The key phrase of the poems reads, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold."

B. Language Issues – Achebe, the third world writer writing in English:

Writers in Third World countries that were formerly colonies of European nations debate among themselves about their duty to write in their native language rather than in the language of their former colonizer.

(i) Some of these writers argue that writing in their native language is imperative because cultural subtleties and meanings are lost in translation. For these writers, a "foreign" language can never fully describe their culture. Achebe maintains the opposite view: by using English, he presents "a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a world-wide language."(‘Morning Yet On Creation Day, Achebe, 1966). He recommends that the African writer use English "in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. [The writer] should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience." Achebe accomplishes this goal by innovatively introducing Igbo language, proverbs, metaphors, speech rhythms, and ideas into a novel written in English.

(ii)Achebe agrees, however, with many of his fellow African writers on one point: The African writer must write for a social purpose. In contrast to Western writers and artists who create art for art's sake, many African writers create works with one mission in mind — to reestablish their own national culture in the postcolonial era. In a 1964 statement, also published in Morning Yet on Creation Day, Achebe comments that, “African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans. . . . their societies were not mindless, but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, . . . they had poetry, and above all, they had dignity. It is this dignity that African people all but lost during the colonial period, and it is this that they must now regain.”

(iii)Achebe presents the complexities and depths of an African culture to readers of other cultures as well as to readers of his own culture. By using English — in which he has been proficient since childhood — he reaches many more readers and has a much greater literary impact than he would by writing in a language such as Igbo. Writers who write in their native language must eventually allow their works to be translated, often into English, so readers outside the culture can learn about it. Yet by using English, Achebe faces a problem. How can he present the African heritage and culture in a language that can never describe it adequately? Indeed, one of the primary tasks of Things Fall Apart is to confront this lack of understanding between the Igbo culture and the colonialist culture. In the novel, the Igbo ask how the white man can call Igbo customs bad when he does not even speak the Igbo language. An understanding of Igbo culture can only be possible when the outsider can relate to the Igbo language and terminology.

Achebe solves this problem by incorporating elements of the Igbo language into his novel. By incorporating Igbo words, rhythms, language, and concepts into an English text about his culture, Achebe goes a long way to bridge a cultural divide.

The Igbo vocabulary is merged into the text almost seamlessly so the reader understands the meaning of most Igbo words by their context. Can any attentive reader of Things Fall Apart remain unfamiliar with words and concepts represented by chi, egwugwu, ogbanje, and obi? Such Igbo terms as chi and ogbanje are essentially untranslatable, but by using them in the context of his story, Achebe helps the non-Igbo reader identify with and relate to this complex Igbo culture.

(1)Chi, for example, represents a significant, complex Igbo concept that Achebe repeatedly refers to by illustrating the concept in various contexts throughout the story. Achebe translates chi as personal god when he first mentions Unoka's bad fortune. As the book progresses, it gradually picks up other nuances. The chi concept is more complex than a personal deity or even fate, another frequently used synonym. Chi suggests elements of the Hindu concept of karma, the concept of the soul in some Christian denominations, and the concept of individuality in some mystical philosophies. The understanding of chi and its significance in Igbo culture grows as one progress through the book.

(2)Another example of Achebe's incorporation of Igbo elements is his frequent reference to traditional Igbo proverbs and tales. These particular elements give Things Fall Apart an authentic African voice. The Igbo culture is fundamentally an oral one — that is, "Among the Igbo, the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten" (Chapter1). To provide an authentic feel for Igbo culture would be impossible without also allowing the proverbs to play a significant role in the novel. And despite the foreign origin of these proverbs and tales, the Western reader can relate very well to many of them. They are woven smoothly into their context and require only occasional explanation or elaboration. These proverbs and tales are, in fact, quite similar in spirit to Western sayings and fables.

Modern-day readers of this novel not only relate easily to traditional proverbs and tales but also sympathize with the problems of Okonkwo, Nwoye, and other characters. Achebe has skillfully developed his characters, and even though they live in a different era and a very different culture, one can readily understand their motivations and their feelings because they are universal and timeless.

(3)Speech patterns and rhythms are occasionally used to represent moments of high emotion and tension. Consider the sound of the drums in the night in Chapter 13 (go-di-di-go-go-di-go); the call repeated several times to unite a gathering followed by its group response, first described in Chapter 2 (Umuofia kwenu. . .Yaa!); the agonized call of the priestess seeking Ezinma in Chapter 11 (Agbala do-o-o-o!); the repetitious pattern of questions and answers in the isa-ifi marriage ritual in Chapter14; the long narrated tale of Tortoise in Chapter 11; and the excerpts from songs in several chapters.

(4)Achebe adds another twist in his creative use of language by incorporating a few examples of Pidgin English. Pidgin is a simplified form of language used for communicating between groups of people who normally speak different languages. Achebe uses only a few Pidgin words or phrases — tie-tie (to tie); kotma (a crude form of court messenger); and Yes, sah — just enough to suggest that a form of Pidgin English was being established. As colonialists, the British were adept at installing Pidgin English in their new colonies. Unfortunately, Pidgin sometimes takes on characteristics of master-servant communication; it can sound patronizing on the one hand, and subservient on the other. Furthermore, using the simplified language can become an easy excuse for not learning the standard languages for which it substitutes.

            Achebe's use of Igbo language, speech patterns, proverbs, and richly drawn characters creates an authentic African story that effectively bridges the cultural and historical gap between the reader and the Igbo. Things Fall Apart is a groundbreaking work for many reasons, but particularly because Achebe's controlled use of the Igbo language in an English novel extends the boundaries of what is considered English fiction. Achebe's introduction of new forms and language into a traditional (Western) narrative structure to communicate unique African experiences forever changed the definition of world literature. The language of the novel is simple but dignified. When the characters speak, they use an elevated diction which is meant to convey the sense of Ibo speech. This choice of language was a brilliant and innovative stroke, given that earlier writers had relegated African characters to pidgin or inarticulate gibberish. One has the sense of listening to another tongue, one with a rich and valuable tradition.

C. Encounter of Cultures:   The introduction of the antagonistic other is purposively delayed by Achebe so that the total picture may emerge that would contrast with the rapid cultural deterioration towards the end of the novel. This also enables the writer to counter the notion that the Africans were mindless and prove that they could think and act philosophically and altruistically. Again it helps in inferring that colonization was more a business determined by territorial, hegemonic instincts than by the will to civilize. Through the reconstruction of history in this novel, Achebe points to the failure of perception of the imperialistic westerners and their tampering with the native culture that changed the historically development of the Africans drastically.

In presenting the alien culture and religion Achebe has presented two aspects – the accommodative one through Reverend James Smith. As long as Mr. Brown is in charge he gives no scope for confrontation at the same time going ahead with promotional activities in regard to his religion. But with the arrival of Mr. Smith in the place of Mr. Brown, the novel rapidly progresses towards the tragic denouncement resulting in the suicide of Okonkwo. Back at Umuofia after the exile Okonkwo perceives that things have changed and wants to act to restore the old order. Through conversion the old tribal community has been dismembered by pitting their own people against it. The new religion has destroyed the social fabric of the tribal life. The oldest member of Umunna of Mbanta while thanking Okonkwo for his farewell feast says: “An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master”. Obierika, the friend of Okonkwo too assesses the situation correctly: “(The White man) has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”. The invasion, religious at first, then cultural and finally political happens at such a pace leaving no time or opportunity to the native people to act accordingly. Moreover, having been secure in their tribal life for a long time they do not possess the quality to respond innovatively to new challenges. And more important is the fact that the power behind the encroaching religion and culture is something they cannot conceive and comprehend.

In religious matters Achebe presents the native people as accommodative and understanding. When there is a conflict about the killing of the royal python one of the elders in Mbanta declares, “It is not out custom to fight for our gods”. Again during the conflict precipitated by Enoch who pulls the mask off an egwugwu, one of the leaders of Umuofia remarks with true understanding when confronting Mr. Smith: “We say he is foolish because he does not know out ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his.” In the religious debate between him and Mr. Brown, Akunna, one of the clan, argues very effectively with logic in such a way as to prove the oneness of all gods.

For people like Mr. Smith and the District Commissioner, power and control are what matters and they are insensitive to the feelings and problems of the clan. By failing to understand the culture of the clan, colonizers like Mr. Smith and the District Commissioner betray a lack of culture and civilization governed by the primitive instincts to possess and control. Achebe is questioning the historical perspective of the white men civilizing the primordial dark skinned Africans. The arrest and humiliation of the leaders of Umuofia are deliberate attempts to weaken the strength of their community. The White Man becomes a merciless hunter and the predator of the native culture. “Umuofia was like a startled animal with ears erect, sniffing the ominous air and not knowing which way to run”. It is in this context that the warrior-knight Okonkwo, desperate though his act might be, strives for heroic action and kills the court messenger. Seeing the reaction of his community to his act he commits suicide and with him ends the culture of his community.  Achebe does not portray the White Man willfully destroying the clan’s culture. He seems to be ignorant of the havoc wrought which is evident through the District Commissioner’s response to the death of Okonkwo. “The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting down details”. The tragedy of such a man as Okonkwo is reduced to an insignificant piece of information in the intended book the title of which is to be ‘The Pacification of the Tribes of the Lower Niger”.

The novel is an apostrophe to lament for the past and a fictional evocation of the inevitability of historical change. The cause for the tragedy is not assigned to the colonizer alone but also to the inexplicable and rigid cultural and social mores of Umuofia. Introspection and selective deviation are necessary for growth. Men like Okonkwo can introspect but suppress their humanistic impulses to conform to norms. In their faith and resolve to protect their culture, they cut themselves off from the refreshing culture generating process. The juxtaposition of this aspect with the colonizers’ desire to control prevents the novel from becoming a sentimental glorification of the past. What Achebe wants to emphasize is the failure of perception on the part of the European colonizer and the need to remove the historical misconception of Africa and her people as primordial and primitive who required the civilizing force of the former.

PLOT OF ‘THINGS FALL APART’ AS EPISODES:

Part One contains thirteen short chapters in which the following episodes take place:

1.      Okonkwo is introduced as a wrestler who is obsessively fighting the effeminacy of his father, Unoka; in the process he establishes solid personal achievements, which make him both a rich man and one of the lords of the clan.

2.      Based on his prior military successes, Okonkwo is appointed leader of the emissaries of war to Mbano and given custody of Ikemefuna, as restitution for the murdered Umuofia woman.

3.      Okonkwo asks for seed-yams from Nwakibie to sharecrop, and the yam he receives make him a rich farmer.

4.      Okonkwo beats up one of his three wives during the Week of Peace, which is his abominable act against the earth goddess, Ani.

5.      His polygamous family members are introduced as an example of the traditional Igbo family structure.

6.      The great wrestling matches, which foreshadow Okonkwo’s wrestling with his chi, are described.

7.      Okonkwo helps to kill Ikemefuna, his adopted son, which is his second abominable act againstAni.

8.      Obierika’s son’s (Maduka’s) engagement ceremony to his bride Akueke is presented as a model Igbo engagement ceremony. It makes Okonkwo envious of Obierika.

9.      Ezinma is ill with iba, and the concern and attention that Okonkwo shows reveal his softer emotional side.

10.  The Uzowulu-Mgbafo family case, tried by the egwugwu as the Umuofia Supreme Court, is described.

11.  Ezinma’s second illness is an opportunity for the narrator to describe the concept of ogbanje and the role of the priestess Chielo, and to reveal the romantic side of Okonkwo.

12.  Akueke’s wedding is described as a model Igbo traditional wedding ceremony.

13.  Okonkwo inadvertently kills Ezeudu’s sixteen year old son in a funeral dance. It is the third abominable act against Ani, and it earns him and his family instant exile to Mbanta.

Part Two contains six chapters and fewer episodes:

1.      Okonkwo and his family are well received at Mbanta by his maternal uncle Uchendu. The reception showcases the famous Igbo extended family system.

2.      Obierika visits Okonkwo in Mbanta, bringing him money from the sale of some of his yams, but he also tells him about the massacre of Abaeme people by the occupying British forces.

3.      Obierika visits Okonkwo again in his fifth year in exile, this time bringing him the bad news of the coming of the missionaries to Umuofia and the conversion of their own people, especially the efulefu, into Christians.

4.      The missionaries are given land, “the evil forest” to build their church in Mbanta, and Okonkwo’s son Nwoye is converted; he later abandons his father tojoin other Igbo Christian converts in Umuofia, where such converts are already learning to read and write in school.

5.      The white man’s religion and government have not only set the outcasts free but also emboldened them to challenge the native religion and government. Okonkwo is incensed by this and wants to lead the fight against the Christians, but Mbanta’s citizens do not let him; however, Okoli, who kills their sacred python out of his new religious overzealousness, dies overnight, and the people feel vindicated by their gods.

6.      Okonkwo’s time in exile is up. He hurriedly prepares to return to Umuofia in a big way. He feasts his host family, that is, his uncle Uchendu and family, and leaves Mbanta for his home clan, Umuofia, with his family.

Part Three also contains six chapters, but with more power-packed and bloodier episodes:

1.      Upon his return, Okonkwo soon discovers that Umuofia has become a more open society: some titled men have converted to Christianity, and a church, a school, and a court have been built to buttress the alien culture. When Okonkwo asks why the elders allowed the white men to settle in Umuofia without a fight, Obierika responds by explaining the clever means by which the whites found a foothold.

2.      A conversation between Akunna and Mr. Brown reveals in a comparative manner the viable tenets of both the traditional Igbo religion and Christianity. Mr.Brown has just sent Okonkwo’s son Nwoye, now called Isaac, to the Teacher Training College at Umuru, and that, coupled with the little attention his people pay him, makes Okonkwo mourn for himself and the clan, which is now breaking up and “unaccountability becoming soft like women”.

3.      Mr. Brown is succeeded by Mr. James Smith, who reverses Mr. Brown’s policy of compromise and accommodation. However, Mr. Smith’s new policy creates greater conflicts between the natives and the church, and between individual natives – a situation that offers Okonkwo a good opportunity to lead the band of egwugwu that destroys Mr. Smith’s church; and “for the moment the spirit of the clan was pacified”.

4.      Two days after the church is destroyed, Okonkwo has become the leader of the egwugwu again, and he goes with the rest, armed with machetes, to answer the call by the District Commissioner. Without warning, they are disarmed, arrested, and detained until they are able to pay restitution fines to the court. The court episode reveals the corrupt role of the kotma in the Indirect Rule of Nigeria by the British.

5.      Okonkwo and his fellow prisoners are set free as soon as the fines are paid, but they come home broken-hearted. Okonkwo chooses to fight alone if the clan fails to go to war with the British forces. The clan is summoned to deliberate the issue, but while they are still listening to their orator, a messenger approaches from the District Commissioner to stop the meeting. He is accosted by Okonkwo. When he refuses Okonkwo’s order to go back, Okonkwo draws his machete in a flash and cuts off the messenger’s head. However, when he looks around and finds that nobody supports his rash action, he wipes his machete on the sand and goes away to commit suicide.

6.      The District Commissioner arrives at Okonkwo’s house with armed soldiers and messengers. Okonkwo is not there, but his friend Obierika leads them to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body is dangling. Obierika pleads with the D.C. to ask his men to cut down the dangling body for ritual burial and pays a glowing tribute to Okonkwo as “one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…” After the episode, the D.C. learns enough of the Igbo culture to enable him to write a book whose tentative title is ‘the Pacification of the Primitive
Tribes of the Lower Niger’.

narrator  · The narrator is anonymous but shows sympathy for the various residents of Umuofia.
point of view  · The narration is in the third person, by an omniscient figure who focuses on Okonkwo but switches from character to character to detail the thoughts and motives of various individuals. tone  · Ironic, tragic, satirical, fablelike;  tense  · Past,1890s;  protagonist  · Okonkwo setting (place)  · Lower Nigerian villages, Iguedo and Mbanta in particular;
major conflict  · On one level, the conflict is between the traditional society of Umuofia and the new customs brought by the whites, which are in turn adopted by many of the villagers. Okonkwo also struggles to be as different from his deceased father as possible. He believes his father to have been weak, effeminate, lazy, ignominious, and poor. Consequently, Okonkwo strives to be strong, masculine, industrious, respected, and wealthy.
rising action  · Enoch’s unmasking of an egwugwu, the egwugwu’s burning of the church, and the District Commissioner’s sneaky arrest of Umuofian leaders force the tension between Umuofia and the colonizers to a breaking point.
climax  · Okonkwo’s murder, or uchu, of a court messenger
falling action  · The villagers allow the white government’s messengers to escape, and Okonkwo, realizing the weakness of his clan, commits suicide.
foreshadowing  · The author’s initial description of Ikemefuna as an “ill-fated boy,” which presages his eventual murder by Okonkwo; the arrival of the locusts, which symbolizes the eventual arrival of the colonizers; Obierika’s suggestion that Okonkwo kill himself, which foretells Okonkwo’s eventual suicide
symbols  · The novel is highly symbolic, and it asks to be read in symbolic terms. Two of the main symbols are the locusts and fire. The locusts symbolize the white colonists descending upon the Africans, seeming to augur good but actually portending troublesome encounters. Fire epitomizes Okonkwo’s nature—he is fierce and destructive. A third symbol, the drums, represents the physical connection of the community of clansmen in Umuofia, and acts as a metaphorical heartbeat that beats in unison, uniting all the village members.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ogbaa, Kalu. Understanding Things Fall Apart: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport: Greenwood Press.1999

Isidore Okpewho (ed.).Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Casebook.OUP: US: 2003.